Button-attaching machine



2 sh ets-sheet 1.

(No Model.) I v Q 7 J. O; F; DICK. BUTTONDATTAOHING MACHINE.

Patented 1390.28, 1886.

(No Model.)

J. C. P. DICK.

2 Sheets-Sheet 2.-

BUTT-ON ATTAOHIN G MACHINE. No. 354.969.

Patented Dec. 28, 1886.

"Nrrnn STATES JOSEPH C. F. DICK, OF BELVIDERE, ILLINOIS.

BUTTON-ATTACHING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 354,969, dated December 28, 1986.

Application filed November ll, 1885. Serial No. 182,487.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J osEPH O. F. DICK, of Belvidere, in the county of Boone and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Attaching Buttons to VVearing-Apparel; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the drawings furnishedand forming a part of the same, is a clear, true, and complete description of my invention.

My said improvements are applicable to such machines as force the prongs of a fastener into and through a fabric and clinch them, while said fastener is coupled to a button, and is suspended from aslotted holder or jaw.with which a elinchingjaw cooperates. Whether said prongs are forced into a fabric or thelatter forced against said prongs, it is essential for obtaining good results that the prongs should stand as nearly as possible at right angles to the face of thejaw by which the button and fastenerare held; but machines ofthis class have heretofore been so organized that they fail in properly holding the prongs, and frequently cause them to be crippled or bent during theinitialportion of the puncturingoperation; and for obviating this difficulty I have, as I believe,.for the first time devised a prong-adjusting finger, and have so organized it with said jaws that it automatically causes the prongs to stand at right angles to the face of the holding-jaw, and maintains them in that position during theinitial puncturing operation without obstructing the movement of the clinchingjaw; and said prong-adjusting finger is also arranged to retire from said holding-jaw for enabling a fastened button to be detached therefrom and leave the jaw free to receive another button and its fastener.

One form of machine to which my said improvements are applicable is shown-and described by me in my Letters Patent No. 310,934, dated January 20, 1885.

To more particularly describe my invention, I will refer to the accompanying drawings, in

which Figures 1 and 2, in side and end views,

views, illustrate my prong-adjusting finger as Figs. 3 and (X0 model.)

applied to a machine of-slightly-differentconstruction.

In the machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the frame or standard A, the treadle B, coupled by a link, a, to the rear end of the pivoted clinching-jaw 0, having thereon a clinchi'ngdie, I), are all substantially as shown in my said Letters Patent.

The head D, with its inclined chute or race way E,s1ot.ted longitudinally, as at c, and having a downwardly-projcctiug rib, d, (at one side of said slot, for partially controlling a fastener, f, engaged with the eye 0 ofa button,) and also having a foot or slotted holdingjaw, as at g, a stopspring, t, and feeding-finger k, (operated by cranklever Z and vertical arm on and cord 12,) are also all substantially as shown in said patent. spring h is also as in my prior machine, and on this I have heretofore relied for firinlyholding the button and fastener in the holdingjaw; but it could not reliably control the pendent prongs of the fastener, but would sometimes permit said prongs to stand at such an angle to the face of the holding-jaw as resulted in their being crippled and bent during the puncturing operation. I still use this lifting-spring for properly holding the button; and it also cooperates with the novel prongadjusting finger F in controlling the fastener, although said adjusting-finger is of value in combination with jaws which do not have said lifting-spring.

In this machinesaid prongadjusting finger consists of a thin flat plate, 0, and a bell-crank lever, 12, having a pendent arm to which said plate is attached. This bell-crank lever is pivoted to the head D at p, so as to vibrate in a vertical plane and tomove said plate toward and from the slot c,and at right angles thereto and beneath the foot of the chute at g, which constitutes the upper jaw of the machine. The proper vibratory movement of said plate along the face of said upper jaw is derived from the vertical arm in and the retractile spiral spring p, it being obvious that when the treadle is freed and actuated by its spring a the contact of said arm with said lever will cause the plate 0 to be moved away from the slot 0, and that when said treadle is next depressed for lifting. the lower jaw said plate will be thrown forward by the spring p".

In Fig.4 a button, e, and fastener f are shown,

The button-lifting with the prongs of the latter inclined, as at any time liable, when said prongadjusting finger is not used, and in Fig. 3 said finger is shown in its working position after it has rectified the position of the prongs and while it is holding said prongs preparatory to the rise of the lower jaw. may not obstruct said lower jaw during its clinching operation, the under surface of the foot of the chute which forms the upper jaw is cut away or recessed at one side equal to the thickness of the plate 0, and hence the latter, when it occupies said recess, presents its under or outer surface in the same plane as the surface of the upper jaw at the opposite side of the slot, and in substance is a part of said jaw.

It will be seen that the prong-adj usting linger need not have a movement toward and from the slot of more than, say, one-sixteenth of an inch, and that it is wholly immaterial what position said finger may assume when with-. drawn from contact with the prongs of the fastener, so long as said finger permits the fastened button to be moved outwardly from the slot of thejaw and another button and its fastener to enter and properly occupy said jaw.

It will be obvious in a machine having a lower jaw otherwise organized and operated, or a. feeding-finger otherwise operatively connected with the treadle, that my novel prongadjusting finger need only be so far varied in its form or construction or arrangementas to pro perly harmonize with said other variationsas, for instance, in Figs. 5 and 6,1 show a machine in which thelower or clinching jaw, G, is vertically reciprocated upon and with a rod, 0, lifted by the treadle B, and the feedingfinger 7c is mounted on a rock-shaft, 7;, which is coupled to the rodO by a link,k ,and hence the prong-adjusting finger F is of slightly-different form and in slightlydifferent arrangement, and it is thrown forward by its spring 1), as in the other machine, but-it is thrown rearward by means of an arm, q, projecting from the rock-shaft k. In both instances the prong-adjusting finger is provided with means whereby its vibrations can be varied.

In Fig. 1 the upper arm of the bellcrank lever 12 has at its outer end an adjustingscrew, 1, tapped into a longitudinal hole in said arm,which serves as a variable abuttingsurface for contact with the swinging arm m. In Figs. 5 and 6 a similar screw, r, is tapped into a hole through the upper arm of the bell-crank lever 19, so that its point or tip serves as a variable abutment against the surface of the arm g.

It will be obvious, while it is in every way preferable to have the prongadjusting finger forced toward the prongs with a yielding pressure, as by its spring 19 that a spring can be relied upon for withdrawing the finger, and the arm at or q can then be arranged to force the finger forward, in which case either arm of the lever, if made slender and of spring metal, would afford the desired In order that said finger,

of a fastener during the clinching operation,

although this is desirable; The main end to gain in this connection is the proper holding of the prongs during the initial puncturing operation, because when once rightly started into a fabric said prongs have but little, if auy,tendency to objectionable deflection. As to the lifting-spring h, it will be seen that if it be not employed the prong-adjusting finger will still assure the proper position of the prongs; but itis obvious that with said spring the adjusting-finger is all the more effective, because in forcing the prongs from their inclined to their proper position said spring is more or less strained, and as a result the button and its fasteneris held much firmer in the upper jaw than would be the case if the spring h were used alone.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The con'ibination, substantially as here in before described, of the slotted jaw for bold.

ing a button, with its pronged, fastener projecting therefrom, the clinching-jaw, and the vibrating prong-adjusting finger which moves along the face of said slotted jaw for engaging with the prongs of a fastener and holding them, during the operation of the clinching-jaw,in a position favorable to puncturing a fabric without bending or crippling.

' 2. The combination of the slotted jaw having a button-lifting spring therein, the clinching-jaw, and a vibrating prong-adjusting finger which moves to and fro along the face of the slotted jaw, at one side of its slot and at right angles thereto, substantially as described.

3. The combination of the clinching-jaw, the slotted jaw having a recess at one side of the slot, and a vibrating prong-adjusting finger which occupies said recess when the jaws are forced togeth er, substantially as described.

4.. The combination, with the slotted holding-jaw and the clinching-jaw, of a vibrating prong adjusting and holding finger provided with an adjustable abutment, substantially as described, whereby the movements of said finger maybe varied.

5. The combination, with the slotted holding-jaw and the clinching-jaw, of a vibrating prong-adj usting finger forced toward said holding-jaw bya spring, substantially as described, whereby said finger will engage with the prongs of a button-fastener under a yielding pressure.

J. O. F. DICK.

Witnesses:

L. D. OoLLINs, GEO. W. NEwooMB.

IIC 

